Many Make a New Year’s Diet Resolution

New Year's Resolution catNew Year’s Diet Resolution, they abound. In fact, dieting and weight loss always rank high. Unfortunately, most people fail at that resolution, often within weeks.

Read New Years by the numbers

How can you ensure yours is a success?

Finding a good diet program depends on you. Some require weekly meetings; others you login to a website regularly. Some provide guidelines and you are on your own. Those that have the financial means might choose a doctor or dietician. Any of these might succeed. All of them can also fail.

Some diets limit your choices of foods by providing actual meals that you purchase and eat. Others require measuring and weighing each food in each meal. Some diets restrict protein, carbs, or fats. Many require calorie counting. So what diet will work for you?

This is the first in a series on A Healthy New You!  Follow our New Year’s Diet plans on Facebook or by subscribing to this blog. Let’s all encourage each other to a healthy lifestyle in 2017!

New Year’s Diet Resolution: New Way of Seeing Food

Many are now rethinking the “diet” approach. Instead of thinking of “limits,” you might consider adding foods. Yes, adding, rather than subtracting. Adding whole foods such as fruit and vegetables helps to crowd out those processed, weight adding foods. In fact, it’s entirely possible to add those foods and not bother counting and measuring at all. Dr. McDougall, author of The Starch Solution, promotes a plant-based lifestyle that will allow you to lose weight with actually dieting. Dr. Fuhrman, author of the Eat to Live and Eat for Health books, among others, offers a different take on the plant-based lifestyle. Both programs offer healthy solutions  and can be slightly modified to allow a small amount of animal products if you feel the need. Most people that stay with either program eventually find it’s simpler and healthier to avoid the animal products altogether.

There are other healthy, whole-food programs, too, but I mention these two as they are both highly successful and can be followed easily. An added bonus: you eat more while often spending less!

What about Protein?

New Year's Resolution protein

Ok, you ask, what’s the catch?

Eating all you want, saving money, getting healthier, and enjoying the foods? Must be some catch.

The only catch, if you call it that, is that you must be willing to make some changes. You won’t be stopping at fast food restaurants frequently, nor will you shop at your favorite butcher. For many, the food change are a challenge. If you are a meat and potatoes person, or chicken nuggets with fries, your taste buds will need to get accustomed to stir fry vegetables, hummus, and fresh fruit. If you now consume a lot of processed foods, the whole food approach may seem strange and even uncomfortable at first. But don’t give up.  Both of these programs offer reasonable results in a few weeks. Dr. Fuhrman has found that many needing to lose weight are able to lose at a very steady rate from the first week.

One comment I’ve heard many times is that yes, this type of lifestyle is among the best. Plant-based eating will help you reach your weight goal and will reverse many diseases and ailments. It’s easy and inexpensive.  But it is difficult to stick with for a long time. Giving up processed foods, added sugars, and meats is quite difficult for many.

I wish I had done this before I got sick

While many comment on the difficulty, those that are dealing with being overweight and the problems it can accrue such as diabetes, heart disease, allergies, and many otNew Year's Resolution pyramidhers, will say they hope it works for them and they wish they had known about it before they became ill. It’s never too late, and it is certainly never too early.

Anything may be challenging at first. When you first began reading, you stammered through some words. Riding a bike took practice, driving a car, even more.

You learn to eat from the time you are a baby. Retraining your taste buds and visual cues can take a little time. But it is certainly worth it. Food is just nourishment. Health gives you the ability to enjoy life more fully and for a longer time.

Interested in Reading more about the plant-based lifestyle?

Below are some of my favorite books on the subject.  Others by these 2 authors are also on my reference book shelf!

I also invite you to join the Christmas Country Mom subscriber list and our Facebook page. Let’s all strive to be healthier and happier in 2017—we can help each other reach our goals!

 


 

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